Scrapbooking Paris

All this snow reminds me of a trip to Paris I took last January, and gives me an excuse to show off the pages I made from some of the pics I took.

These are probably my favorite scrapbooking pages to date. 

Once I had formed the idea it didn't take too long to create either. The four photos have really done most of the work by themselves- I just cut them a bit to fit within the scalloped border. I used a cricut machine for the gorgeous lettering and voila!

I still had the left over paper from the centre of the page above-but what to do with it??

I got the idea for a pinboard from a combination of a scrapbook page by Elizabeth Kartchner (the diamondy bit!) and my pinboard at home.

I think creating a pinboard page is a good way to show off those photos that you don't quite know what to do with, a mixture of shapes I think work well too.

The paper I used is from Basic Grey Origins Collection and was part of  the Scrapaholix March 2010 kit

Basic Grey Origins~Mud mask

I'm a PPA Pick

I was one of the winners for PPA 73!!

Wow- my first ever competition win! How exciting- I get to put this logo/blinkie on my blog (i've made a little section for "competitions" on the right hand side) and popped it there. When you click on it it takes you through to my wining design! (Or you can just look at my last post!)

Paper Pals Art Challenge 73

My entry for PPA73

Here's me having another go at the PPA Challenge- I think i'm getting addicted!

Element of Style "Lace"

Pot painting

Just had to post something about a lovely afternoon yesterday spent pot painting! Despite the sudden snowfall  I trekked to Unique Creations and met up with a fellow pot painter to paint the afternoon away.
I received the card in the background for my birthday and just thought the colours on the cupcake were so fun, I had to use them when I next went pot painting.

More cards...

Made with Bella Bleu Stampin Up paper set, sizzix die cuts for the wording and envelope  and punches for butterflies swirl, and scallop edging.

Alas I didn't get chosen in the Paper Pals competition (sob, sob) but on I go with my card making!

I'm thinking of churning out a few similar size ones to put in a box (still to make) and give out for Christmas.

Made with 'On a Pedestal' SU stamp set ,  tag punch and scalloped edge

Paper Pals Art Challenge 72

My Entry for PPA72

Here's my first ever entry to a card challenge blog: Paper Pals Art
Each week they set a challenge based on a theme/colour etc (see blog) and this week it is the following picture

Very lovely and wintery. My card is based on the engagement one I posted a few weeks ago, taking a giant ring as the central motif. I used a bit of white embossing powder with a stamp from SU! "Happy Everything" set for the wording, and then some little gold stickers for the 'congratulations'. 

Christmas card #2

Well, I ran out of black card (and was a tad bored of all that cutting and embossing!) so this card was super easy! Having the card blank makes life so much easier-ha! So all I had to do was stamp onto white card, trim, stick onto some red paper, trim, stick onto card blank, punch holes, add eyelets and tie ribbon, ta dah!

Found a brilliant craft shop in Wantage at the weekend:

The Stamp Attic

And some more colours!

Christmas Card time!

Christmas Card time!
Quite a simple idea here, but the thought of churning out more elaborate designs really put me off making any at all!
I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I bought myself a heatgun (having wanted one for a while I popped into the craft shop the other day and saw one for £15 -so grabbed one quick!) I already has some gold embossing powder (stampin Up) and the sticky ink/embossing ink, so I was set to go. That is apart from a christmassy stamp- but a friend sorted that by letting me borrow her Stamping Up "Seasons of Joy" set. The size of this stamp fits a small square card just right.
I managed 10 one go, so at least i've made a start...!

A couple of punched cards

A couple of cards made entirely with punches. A new venture with the mini heart punch card- keep seeing cards where multiples of the same motif are lined up- thinking of trying butterflies next.
And then another Happy Birthday Punch card -based on the blue/red one I did a few posts back.

Engagement card

Whilst looking through past photos of things i've made I came across this card that i'm quite proud of.

I got the idea from Ella Hill's amazing papercut work (although I can't find the ring invitations that I took the idea from now!)

I used a hexagon punch for the gemstone, a circle punch for the ring and a large tag die on a Big Shot cutter.

Birthday Whimsy

Just realised I hadn't posted this card I made back in October. It was my first foray into using brush pens with stamps-so much cleaner and you can combine colours on one stamp-great!

A Scrapbook page and card

This card was put together from the leftovers used to make the scrapbook page below (still unfinished!)

A new punch used here is Martha Stewart's Happy Birthday Deep Edge Punch borrowed from a friend.

I got a lot of use out of my Daisy Fan punch for these creations-and probably spent too much time  on cutting and sticking cream half circles to the backs of the scallops!

Having fun with punches

The joy of punches!

Here's a few of my favourite punches:

• Martha Stewart Deep Edger Punch - Daisy Fan 
• Martha Stewart Martha Stewart Deep Edger Punch, Doily Lace
• Stamin' Up 5-petal flower
• ektools-Scallop Diamond Edger Punch

Card made using 5-petal flower and Scallop Diamond Edger Punch 

(As you can see I still had bits left over from the page I made in the last post)

Scrapbooking stores-American style

Just back from the states and wow- visited 2 amazing scrap/craft stores-why don't we have them in the UK?!
Scrapbooking or scrappin' time was a purely scrapbooking shop and then Michael's a huge craft store. What's more is that they give you 40% off the most expensive item. If only I lived there I could buy something every week!

Mj's crop with Kirsty Wiseman

I had a fun day on Saturday-attending 2 Scrapbooking crops! The page above I created at Mj's crop circle nr Thatcham as part of a workshop with guest scrap-booker Kirsty Wiseman.  I altered the design somewhat but all the 'bits' (except the green flowers) were from Kirsty's pack. I've always wanted to have a go at this sort of page, and it was fun trying to fit all the bits onto the one layout. We also got to try out some ink sprays, which is a nice way to start a page off-especially when it's big and white.
We also got to make a beautiful envelope booklet, but I will leave the picture of that for now(incase I decide to make them as Christmas presents!)

A Little card

A little card here inspired from a gorgeous post by Nancy Riley.  I don't have the 2-step bird punch (yet!) so have used the SU! 5 petal punch- my new toy at the moment.
I've also cracked open my pack of Cottage Wall Designer Paper which is so lovely. More of that to come I think..

2 for 1 Butterfly cards

I thought i'd have a play with my new butterfly punch.  Keeping to an autumnal colour scheme, I kept both the positive and negative butterfly shapes that were created and thus was able to make 2 cards from one process!

Trendy Tree Thank Yous

I finally got round to making  some cards! I had a go with my Stampin' Up Trendy Trees Stamping wheel and choc ink. And then did a bit of punching with 2 martha stewart punches (lace and scallop) and voila ~ three cards in one evening!

Update: 6/11/10

Here's another one I just made using the left overs from this batch of cards/colours.

I bought the butterfly stickers from the states.  Their bronze colour works really well with rest of the hues.

Sweetpea stamp set

I've been playing with my latest Stampin' Up set today. Managed to get through a big pile of blank postcards in the process!
Here's what I came up with:

 

Dear Lizzy online class

Well, I signed up for this class from Elizabeth Kartchner's blog and have only just got round to starting it! I received a packaged in the post with all the fabric flowers in which was v.exciting (i love receiving parcels!!) and have just finished pinning the first part.

Pinning the first 2 bows

Pinning the left hand side!

I will keep you up-dated as it progresses!

Wedding scrapbook pages~ Z&B

Here's one of quite a few wedding scrap book pages I have created. I started with the patterned background pages from Scrapaholix's february kit and went for green as a contrasting colour to the purples.

I've used an array of cutting tools to create the shapes shown: punches (for the scalloped edges and small squares) Creative Memories Custom Cutting System -circles and the black swirly frame was made with a die and the Big shot die cutting machine

Fabric Rehab

Fabric is one of those things I keep meaning to get back in to, and this website might have just done the trick. A friend told me about "Fabric Rehab" the other day.

Its quite simple to navigate, and has the advantage of prices in pounds! (I so often stumble across lovely websites and then find its all in dollars and then has to be shipped from the US etc etc).

I like their mini bundles and "emergency budget bundle" (only £2!)

Stamping all the way ~ b'day card

I couldn't sleep much last night so in the end decided to do something productive-and make a card!
I got out my Stamp' Up! stamp sets and used the following:
I stamped the background first using a flower from 'Out of the box' and one from 'Polka Dot punches'. The central motif is from 'On a pedestal'. I stamped these bits separately, cut them out and raised them a bit from the page with foam dots. The little cherry stamp was then great to fill the gaps where the background shapes don't meet exactly.
And voila ~ I made a card!

One year on

I was part of a Scrapaholix group for a few months (until it closed) and each month you were given a pack of papers to work with.
This layout was with the BoBunny "Flutter Butter" papers and was for the Jan 2010 club. I came across a gorgeous layout on the scrapaholix gallery and have basically "scrap-lifted" it!

The couple photo is again taken by Alice Jackman, when we visited in July/August 2009. I had a go with her camera -and took photos of our rings :)

First ever scrapbook page

Here's a pic of the first proper scrapbook page I ever made, at a Scrapbooking party/evening a couple of years ago.

Its a really big thing in the US and Canada, but its not so well known over here...must spread the word! I suppose you could call it something like 'glorified photo album making' ?!
I think it takes me back to my school sketchbook days where I always enjoyed filling a page with designs and bits and pieces.

I complimented my page with a giant photo version of the mini ones, which I think works well.

The photos are of me and my husband (husband -to-be at the time!) and are taken by Alice Jackman. She also took our wedding photos and her pics may spring up quite a bit form time to time (she also taught me everything I know about photography, including how to use my very first SLR camera, back when we still used film!)

Pretty iPods

Update 2013: Amplify went out of business, but do go and visit this lovely blog for the beautiful cards :)

Well, finally got amplify to work, so here's another clip that I just love! The blog doesn't seem to have been updated since sept 2009 though :(

Amplify’d from thecraftspa.blogspot.com

I found another babygrow card!

Update 2013: Amplify went out of business, but do go and visit this lovely blog for the beautiful card :)
Amplify’d from www.stampjourney.com

See more at www.stampjourney.com

Blog hopping

Today I have been checking out Nancy Riley's blog: iSTAMP which is a blog with a difference:  she uses it mainly to show iPICKS- a selection of her favourite cards (mainly stamped) from all over the web. You can then click on each picture to take you through to that person's blog.

She uses a programme called Clipmarks which you can download to your browser (only firefox or IE-bummer since I now use Chrome!) However I have just found a version called "amplify" that is supposed to work with chrome, but so far i am having trouble getting it to post to my blog!! Anyone have any ideas??
Update 29/7/2012: amplify is no longer available. Looks like Pinterest is the way to do this these days

Simple but effective

I made this one with the help of a  scallop edge circle punch and circle punch. I cut the butterfly out of some wrapping paper and stuck it to the background paper with some raised sticky tabs-simple!

iPhone B'day card

It was my husband's birthday last week so i made him this little iPhone card (as he recently acquired one, and now lives on it!!) I googled for pictures of iPhone icons, popped them into paint and altered them so they made the letters i wanted.

Treat holder

Left: by Becky                    Right: by Carole W

These little gems seem to pop up all over Stampin' Up blog land. But again, it is amazing because it is SO simple, yet SO effective! You can go to town on what you want to put on it in way of embellishment tags and bows too.

There's a great demo video on Monica Gale's blog:
My many many passions

And another great example on Sarah-Jane Rae's blog:
Cards and a cuppa

Update: 10/9/2010 Just found another lovely one on Michelle Last's blog, she calls them "french fry boxes"!

To have and to hold

When it comes to weddings I always seem to forget to take a photo to remind me of what card i've made, but luckily I remembered on this occasion (back in Sept 2009!)
I have a little folder where I keep materials that I think will work well for wedding cards.
I particularly like this wedding ribbon that I bought for my own wedding from Cox & Cox (a very yummy catalogue store full of gifty type things)

My First Stampin Up Party!

Here's the card we all made with Carole Waechtler, our local Stampin up' demonstrator. I was "hostess" for the evening and there were 6 ladies there in total.
Carol's card deign used Old olive ink and card, and the following stamp sets: tiny tags, All a flutter (the butterfly), Dot dot dot (bottom half of card) and Baroque border Stampin'  Around wheel (a rollable stamp-v.fun!)
Everyone's card came out looking so elegant.